News in Brief: A National Roundup

Ariz. Court Agrees District Liable for Bus-Stop Injuries

An Arizona appeals court has upheld a $900,000 jury verdict against
a district found partially responsible for severe injuries a student
suffered after getting off at a school bus stop at a major
intersection.

In unanimously upholding the negligence award against the
13,000-student Tempe Elementary School District, a three-judge state
appellate panel said a district has a duty when locating a bus stop to
"refrain from subjecting its students to any foreseeable and
unreasonable risk of harm." In its Sept. 16 ruling, the court also said
evidence showed that residents of a nearby subdivision had
unsuccessfully requested that the district move the stop.

Andrew C. Warrington was 7 in 1993 when he got off his bus, then
darted into a busy avenue to escape a boy who had threatened to beat
him up, according to his family's lawsuit. He suffered severe brain and
spinal injuries when struck by a car. The jury allocated 45 percent of
the fault to Andrew, 40 percent to his parents, and 15 percent to the
district.

Bradley R. Jardine, a lawyer for the district, said the ruling
greatly expanded districts' potential liability in the operation of
their transportation systems. Tempe may appeal.

--Mark Walsh

Parents Sue Over Uniform Policy

Parents and students have sued Polk County, Fla. believed to be the
only public school district in the nation that requires its students to
wear uniforms.

The suit, filed this month in U.S. District Court in Tampa, lists
500 plaintiffs who want the policy thrown out on the grounds that it
infringes on freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

The school board of the 77,000-student district voted last May to
require elementary and middle school students to wear uniforms. The new
measure replaces one adopted in 1996 that allowed parents to opt out of
having their children wear regulation apparel to school.

District officials say they removed the "opt out" provision because
schools in which the majority of pupils wore uniforms showed a decrease
in violence, property damage, and suspensions.

--Candice Furlan

Charlotte Buys Sites for Schools

For the second time in a month, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school
board in North Carolina has approved the purchase of a second, new
school site within the city limits.

The 99,000-student district is anticipating the need for several new
buildings to accommodate more than 7,000 students who could return to
neighborhood schools as a result of a recent federal court ruling that
ended race-based admissions to magnet schools. ("Federal Judge Declares
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Unitary," Sept. 22, 1999.)

In his Sept. 9 ruling, the judge in the district's 30-year-old
desegregation case ended court supervision of the district. Since the
landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Swann v.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, which allowed
mandatory busing for desegregation, the district has used busing and an
elaborate system of magnet schools to integrate schools in the city of
Charlotte and suburban Mecklenburg County.

The board has not decided whether to appeal.

--Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Conn. Sues Charter Founder

Connecticut's attorney general is seeking the return of hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the founder of a charter school who is
accused of mismanagement and misuse of state funds.

Robin Barnes, a University of Connecticut law professor, started the
Village Academy, an elementary school in New Haven, two years ago.

The academy was located in a building she had bought and then leased
back to the school, according to the state's lawsuit. Later, Ms. Barnes
allegedly failed to make mortgage payments on the property, and this
fall, moved the school to another location without informing state
officials.

The state also alleges that while Ms. Barnes told state education
officials the school would be governed by a board of trustees, the
panel she assembled played only an advisory role, allowing her to
maintain sole authority. The state school board revoked the Village
Academy's charter Sept. 8.

Although not listing a total dollar figure, the lawsuit seeks
damages equal to three times the amount of grants, loans, and other
state money Ms. Barnes allegedly misused.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal had yet to decide last week
whether criminal charges should also be pursued

Ms. Barnes could not be reached for comment last week.

--Jeff Archer

School Returns Christian Texts

A Southern California school is removing curriculum materials with
explicit references to Christianity in its attempt to settle a
lawsuit.

Steven J. Wentland, the principal of the 64-student, K-8 Belridge
Elementary School, said staff members removed every piece of
multidisciplinary textbooks and supporting materials published by A
Beka Books Inc., a Pensacola, Fla., company that bills itself as the
"largest Christian textbook publisher in the world."

The curriculum, which the school purchased this summer, includes
repeated references to the Bible and Christian doctrine, according to
the federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Aug.
24, the day after school opened.

"These books never got into the kids' hands," said Mr. Wentland, who
also is the superintendent of the one-school Belridge district in the
desert about 50 miles from Bakersfield. "We shipped them all back."

The district is addressing the ACLU's complaints, and the two sides
are near a formal settlement, said Michael Fleming, a spokesman for the
Los Angeles chapter of the ACLU.

--David J. Hoff

Violence Data To Go Online

Nearly a dozen New Jersey school districts will soon be submitting
data about school violence to the state education department via the
Internet.

The pilot program, which is scheduled to start next month, involves
11 districts, including Newark, Jersey City, and Trenton.

Officials expect the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting
System to streamline reporting procedures and enable educators to
design programs to keep students safe.

All districts in the state will be expected to start using the
Internet to report the data in February.

--Michelle Galley

Cat Burned in Homecoming Fire

A Colorado student was suspended for 10
days last week for throwing a cat into a bonfire at a homecoming pep
rally.

Fire officials and adult chaperones were in attendance during the
celebration and traditional hillside bonfire for the 380-student
Gunnison (Colo.) High School, according to Principal Steve Coleman.

The cat had to be euthanized as a result of the burns it
sustained.

Five other students were suspended for two to five days for their
indirect participation.

Mr. Coleman said the primary offender's return to school was pending
a full psychological evaluation, but he would not release any further
information about the students. Gunnison police are pursuing a separate
investigation, and the students could face criminal charges as a
result.

--Michelle Galley

Death

W. Arthur Garrity Jr., the federal district judge whose school
desegregation order in Boston touched off violent protests and
indelibly linked that city to the image of forced busing, died of
cancer Sept. 16 in Wellesley, Mass. He was 79.

Judge Garrity's 1974 ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan said
that the Boston school committee had deliberately and
unconstitutionally segregated the public schools, leaving black
students with an inferior education.

Foes blamed him for a mass exodus of white families to local
parochial or suburban schools and lingering troubles in the public
system.

But others praised his decision as courageous and said mandatory
busing played only a marginal role in "white flight" from the city.

In an interview this year marking the 25th anniversary of the
ruling, Judge Garrity expressed no regrets over his decision and said
the school system was better off for the court's intervention.
("Judgment Days," June 2,
1999.)

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